


Life of a Diegetic

by UberDuper



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life, its a lot more goofy than it sounds, mostly - Freeform, there are serious parts tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-03 02:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8692402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UberDuper/pseuds/UberDuper
Summary: Marina Wallden didn't have very many aspirations in life. She wanted to study film, sit in her room all day, and live an uneventful life. That was just the kind of person she was. However, the universe had different plans for her the day it dropped two aliens in her lap right at the beginning of her last summer before college. Now she's got some different aspirations: convince these aliens that the human race deserves to exist and prevent them from taking over the world. She's a bit in over her head.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> original work that i started for NaNoWriMo. I actually like the main characters, so I figured that was as good a reason as any to throw this up here.

Marina Wallden's eyes snapped open. She sat up in bed, sleepily rubbing at her eyes. What time was it? A quick glance to the side revealed the glowing red numbers of her alarm clock on her nightstand, cutting a clear image through the darkness of her room. 4:28 AM. Her lips turned downwards, and she pushed some of her currently frizzy black hair out of her face. What had woken her up so early in the damn morning? She had always been a light sleeper, but that was no excuse for waking up at four in the morning.

Marina grumbled, rubbing her eyes again. She turned, hanging her legs off the end of the bed and staring at her toes, which she took the opportunity to groggily wiggle to make sure that she was, indeed, awake. Well, there was really no point in going back to sleep. She would only wake up in half an hour later when her father got out of bed and did his best not to wake her as he got ready for work. She always woke up anyway.

Her hand instinctively found the remote as she adjusted her sweatpants, and she quickly switched on the TV across the room. It cast a bright light across her room, illuminating her pale skin and forcing Marina to cover her eyes with her forearm so that she wouldn't go blind. When she removed her arm, she was greeted with the familiar sight of the local morning news. As always, the TV was muted, leading Marina to stare blankly at the still blurry blob of color on the screen. She sat silently for a few minutes, simply watching the colored blobs to the TV shift around as the news went on, and let her eyes adjust to the light of the TV. Marina looked down at the remote and, after a moment's consideration, hit the 'Mute' button.

“-trange power outage around 2:45 this morning.” The newscaster lady said, taking a moment to adjust her papers before continuing. Marina listened. “Workers at the Garotte City Power Station reported that nothing was faulty with the machinery, and that it must have been an outside influence that caused the outage. What, exactly, could have caused such a massive outage is still unknown, and Garotte City Power Station workers have stated that calling the authorities has been considered. In other news-”

“Mmm...” Marina hummed, muting the TV again, having pulled on a shirt of questionable cleanliness while she had listened to the report. A power outage out of nowhere was pretty weird. But everything was okay now, so it didn't really matter, did it? Marina began reaching for the game controller on her nightstand when she heard it. A thump. And then another, another, and another. She froze up, hand centimeters from the plastic of her controller. There was another thump, this time more metallic. Marina's gaze snapped towards the window over her bed. It came from the fire escape. Her hand gravitated to the side, instinctively grabbing the handheld video camera resting next to her controller. It was more of a comfort action than anything.

Marina scrambled over to her window and pushed it up with her free hand, letting the warm June air wash over her and fill her room. Outside, the rusty fire escape rested and, beyond it, Marina could see the familiar cityscape from seventeen stories up. A good portion of it remained dark, though it was interspersed with lights of various colors, 24/7 shops still offering their wares and restless people still performing whatever work they had to. Mesmerized by the comforting sight, Marina jumped in surprise at the sound of the fire escape groaning. It let out another pained croak, as if something heavy was pushing down on it. That wasn't normal. Despite the fear gnawing at her bones, the filmmaker in Marina urged her out onto the fire escape.

A light breeze ruffled her hair and pushed lightly on her back, as if urging her forward. Camera firmly in her grasp, Marina took a single step forward. The fire escape remained quiet beneath her, which encouraged her to take another step, this time placing her foot on the rusted stair before her. The fire escape's silence compelled her to continue, and Marina slowly began climbing up the rusty stairs, one foot after the other.

She stopped on the landing of the eighteenth floor, a sound catching her ears. It was... an argument? Two voices, one sounding... robotic? Marina stopped dead in her tracks, trying to listen in. Despite the quietness of the early morning, the voices were still too quiet for Marina to make out anything other than the vague sound. Still, she unconsciously flicked on the video camera before continuing up the fire escape.

The sound of the voices grew gradually louder as Marina ascended the fire escape, but she could only really make out what they were saying once she was right at the edge of the roof. Marina peeked up over the lip of the apartment building, expecting to see two maintenance workers, or perhaps a singular worker that was arguing on the phone. That would have been simple, easy to understand, and would have let Marina calm her irrational fears.

Instead, she was met with the sight of a humanoid... thing floating above the surface of the roof facing a huge, cylindrical machine. They appeared to be in a heated argument, as Marina could tell by the tone of their voices. Her hands, no, her entire body, trembled, and she had to clasp her video camera with both hands and place it against the building's lip in order to steady it in any sort of reliable way.

“Just let me go in by myself, then. I wanna see how they sleep.” The humanoid mentioned. To Marina, it looked... kind of human. He had tan skin, shaggy brown hair, and a chiseled jaw. In fact, Marina might have thought him attractive if it weren't for the fact that his right hand was currently a blob of... electricity. The blob looked like a compressed lightning bolt, both blue and yellow at the same time, and tiny sparks jumped from it.

“No.” The machine replied. It was made out of something dark, jet black. Four 'legs' protruded out of the bottom and held it up, but Marina couldn't see them very well, or too much beyond that. The only light source on the roof was the humanoid's glowing... hand thing.

“Aw, Onesie, don't be like that.” The humanoid said. The two paused their conversation as the humanoid's hand morphed into a human hand, except with only three fingers and no thumb. It quickly returned to its glowing ball form.

“You cannot even maintain a convincing facsimile of this planet's sapient species. How can you hope to gather their data?” The machine said.

“At least I managed to translate their language.” It snorted, once again attempting to make the ball into a convincing hand.

“And what a clumsy, boorish language it is.”

“You seem to like it.”

They went on for a little while longer, starting to argue about how flimsy the fire escape was and how they were going to 'gather data', whatever that meant, while Marina recorded the conversation. In all honesty, she wasn't sure if she would still be there if it wasn't for the camera. She wasn't even sure what was keeping her there, aside from the fact that her feet were rooted to the fire escape and her forearms seemed stuck to the brick of the building. Marina wasn't sure she could have moved if she tried. And then she sneezed.

The two things instantly stopped talking, and Marina's body sprung into motion. She scrambled away from the roof, nearly tumbling down the fire escape in the process. Her side thumped into the railing on the nineteenth floor's landing, and she quickly moved to leap down the stairs. Her heart pounded in her chest as she made her great escape. Had they seen her? What could she do if they had? That one said it wanted to watch people sleep. Why would it want to do that?

Upon reaching the seventeenth floor, Marina tossed her camera onto her bed, throwing herself through the window and landing on her bed. The springs let out an audible groan, but Marina ignored it and quickly slammed her window shut, locking it a moment later. Her chest heaved with fear, and she gulped down huge breaths of air in order to calm herself down.

“Marina?” Her bedroom opened up, and her father stuck his head in. She could tell that he had just woken up, sleep still evident on his face. “Is everything alright? What's with the slamming?”

“Um... yes?” Marina replied, unsure of how to respond. Behind her, sunlight had started filling the room, casting slight shadows onto her father's dark skin. “I uh... a-a bird tried to um... fly in. And... and I got surprised and... s-sorry...”

“It's fine,” he shook his head, rubbing at his eyes. They gravitated towards the TV, which was playing the end of some sort of late night TV show. “Have you been up all night playing games again? I know you're grown up now, but it's not good to be staying up all night. You need your sleep.”

“I... sorry Dad, I know. I didn't... I wasn't up all night, I swear. I just um... woke up early.” Marina glanced down, grabbing her video camera and squeezing it lightly.

“...Alright.” her father yawned. “I'm going to get ready for work, do you want to have breakfast with me before I go?”

“Y-Yeah.” Marina smiled at him, and he returned it before ducking his head out and shutting the door. She let out a sigh of relief, slumping back onto her bed and curling up into a ball. Those things on the roof... was she just imagining it? Was it just a dream? Marina glanced back down, seeing the little red light on the video camera, letting her know that it was recording. She stared at the light for a little bit before flicking it off. Another moment went by that consisted of her simply staring at the dark gray plastic of the recording device before she popped open the side screen and looked over the menu.

'06/15, 04:37 AM' was the most recent recording. Marina couldn't tear her eyes away from the date and time, but couldn't bring herself to play the clip she had taken. Because if what happened really did... Before she could stop herself from doing otherwise, Marina hit play, starting up the recording.

And she relived everything that had happened. The two figures on the roof, their argument, her sneeze and escape, and the conversation with her father. It wasn't like she expected for it to be a dream... but it would have been nice.

Marina sighed, reaching out and grabbing the controller and remote from her nightstand. Soon, she was playing a game without really caring what it was, just going through the motions as she tried to forget about the strange figures she saw on the roof. Maybe if she ignored them for long enough, they would stop existing. A few minutes later, her father called her out and she, somewhat reluctantly, left her room to eat breakfast.

“Here you go, my sweet.” Her father handed her a plate with a hard boiled egg, three pieces of sausage, and an everything bagel, her favorites, and kissed her forehead as she entered the apartment's kitchen. She glanced to the side, down the entryway to the front door. An irrational thought told her that the figures could just bust through the front door, but she shook it away.

“Ah... c'mon Dad...” Marina grinned anyway, accepting the plate before she noticed the briefcase in her father's other hand. She shot him a questioning look, and he responded with a guilty smile.

“That outage from earlier caused some delays on the metro and bus system, so I've got to get going if I don't want to be late.”

“...Okay.” Marina frowned, staring down at her breakfast.

“Don't pout, baby girl.” Her father placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “I promise we'll eat something nice together for dinner.” He gave Marina another kiss, this time on the top of her head. “I'll see you tonight.”

“Bye, Dad.” Marina sighed, watching her father exit. She let out another sound of discontent before plodding over to the table and plonking her plate down onto it.

So this was how she was going to start her last summer at home out? By eating breakfast alone? Just perfect. Marina stared dejectedly down at her breakfast, prodding at her egg with an index finger. Suddenly, she wasn't all that hungry anymore.

“Interesting.” At the sound of a familiar voice, Marina froze up. “Familial units express affection through physical contact. I've always liked creatures that do that.” She slowly glanced up, finding the figure from on the roof standing in the middle of her kitchen. It had finally figured out how to shape its hand, evidenced by the fact that it was currently rubbing its chin with one. It also had acquired some clothes, a yellow and orange Hawaiian shirt and a pair of cargo shorts.

Marina opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She couldn't speak, she couldn't scream. She couldn't make a peep. Her legs, however, seemed to know what to do, and Marina found herself barreling towards the front door.

“Cellular housing units? How primitive.” The machine said, clearly unimpressed, as it stood in the doorway of her apartment, blocking the exit. It had a hexagon shaped pattern of lights on its front, six lights making up the six corners of the shape with one in the center. The machine swiveled towards her, and the lights lit up red. “This is the creature that established a visual link approximately one and a half earth 'hours' ago.”

“You coulda just said she was the one that saw us.” The figure said, now behind Marina. She turned to look at it, and it smiled at her. “Hey,” he said to her. And then Marina passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

“...have taken note of the human race's incredibly low tolerance for surprise and panic.” “Now you're just being mean.” Marna's eyes cracked open. The plush feeling of a comforter against her back and something plastic against her leg let her know that she was in her room, on her bed. And as she pushed herself up onto her elbows, the reason she found herself there became evident. The figure and the machine stood there next to her bed, staring at her. Well... the machine was standing. The figure seemed to be floating a few inches above the floor.

“Welcome back.” The figure smiled at her. “I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that you were only asleep for ten of your planet's minutes.”

Marina scrambled away from the two, which admittedly wasn't very far due to the fact that her back had just bumped into the wall and they were still right there. The room was quiet as the two stared at Marina, and she stared back, legs twitching as if prepping to bolt.

“Not a talker, huh?” The figure shrugged, that unnervingly placid smile still plastered on his face. “That's fine, I've worked with worse.”

“Do not be so dismissive of this human.” The machine said, voice flat. “For all we know, it is simply biding its time until the father returns. We have not done a comprehensive scan of human capabilities, so the differing in epidermal pigmentation may be indicative of increased physical or mental abilities.”

“...what?” Marina asked, the words leaving her mouth without meaning to. She immediately clasped her hands over her mouth. The figure only chuckled.

“There's that lovely voice. But I don't believe that's the question we should be asking each other.” The figure held out a hand to her. “May I have your name?”

Marina stared at the hand offered to her. It just looked like a regular hand, but she knew what was underneath. She knew it was made out of... that electricity stuff. So she didn't reach out to shake it, only stared at it until the figure retracted its hand.

“Could have sworn that was a human greeting method.” It frowned, rubbing its chin. “Perhaps I misinterpreted the data we retrieved? It's possible...”

“Allow me to deal with this.” The machine turned towards Marina, and part of its body popped open, revealing what looked like a coiled up, metal hose. The hose thing unraveled, revealing a tri-pronged claw. The claw moved forward, poking Marina in the sternum. Her breath hitched in surprise. “Listen to me, human. It is within your best interests to cooperate with us. If you do not, you and your species face potential domestication and or elimination.”

“D... d...” Marina couldn't even get the word out. Domestication? These two were going to... domesticate humans?

“Ah hell, Onesie, you scared her. How're we supposed to get her to work with us if you're scarin' the shit out of her?” The figure threw up his hands in what looked like exasperation. “If you would have just let me handle it-”

“Incorrect. Your method was leading to nothing by a recursive result. Had I not intervened, we would have been stuck with nothing more than we started with.” The machine removed its claw from Marina's chest, using it to instead threaten the figure. She let out a sigh of relief.

“You always do this.” The figure groaned, putting a hand on his face. “Who's the psychological specialist here? Is it you? No, I don't think so. I don't think you're the psych guy are you, Onesie?”

“Address me by my designation.” The machine poked the figure in the chest, and Marina noticed that the top two lights on the machine's front turned off, making it look... almost irritated. “And perhaps your credentials should be revoked, considering your lack of success in regards to the persuasion of the native creatures.”

“It's only a lack of success because you won't let me do my job!” The figure retorted, jabbing the machine with his index finger. “If you would let me work, then maybe-”

“U-Um...” Marina interrupted the argument, causing both of them to look at her. At the sudden movement, she squeaked in surprise, snatching up her pillow and pulling it to her chest. “Uh... n-never mind! Never mind!”

“No, no, please go on.” The figure's entire demeanor changed once she spoke up, losing the air of aggression he had gained while arguing with the machine. “Ignore ol' Onesie here, he's a wet blanket and kind of the worst.”

“Y-You guys said that... you were gonna...” Marina swallowed, the words in her throat thick and unwilling. “Dom-mesticate us?”

“Let me elaborate.” The figure said, turning to glare at the machine when it rose its claw. “Let _me_ elaborate.” It sighed, pinching the bridge of its nose before smiling at Marina again. “First though, we got off on the wrong foot. No more appendage gripping of any sort.” It clasped its hands behind its back before beginning. “Now, may I have your name this time? It would be beneficial to our future endeavors if we know each other by name. Here, I'll start.” It cleared its throat. “I'm Seville.”

“Um...” Marina glanced away, and made... could she even call it 'eye contact'? She made eye contact with the machine, which stared blankly at her. That unnerved her, so she looked back at 'Seville'. “I um... I'm Marina?...”

“Lovely name.” Seville said, leaning back slightly. “Onesie, introduce yourself. Make our host feel better about this whole thing.”

“...fine.” The machine almost seemed to sigh, taking a step closer to the bed, before placing the claw onto its front, just under the array of lights that Marina guessed served as its eyes. “My official designation is the Information Retrieval and Data Analysis Unit, Mark I. However, I am allowing you to refer to me as my abbreviated designation 'I.R.a.D.A.U' for our time together.”

“Wait, uh...” Marina looked between Seville and Iradau, gaze flitting around nervously. “You're um... what do you mean 'host'?”

“Oh, that's simple,” Seville said, shrugging, “We'll be staying here and working with you to determine the resource capacity of your planet and the developmental and cultural capabilities and potential of your human species in order to accurately come to a conclusion as to your fate.”

“I-I...” Marina felt lightheaded. “What?”

“Oversimplification at it's finest, I see.” Iradau cut in, letting out a mechanical wheeze that sounded almost like a sigh. “You see, 'Marina', Seville and I specialize in different fields and areas of study, and we are here to examine the facets of your planet and species as a whole. I shall study all of the environmental aspects of your 'Earth', as you humans call it, aspects like the water, weather, sources of untapped resources, et cetera, et cetera.” Iradau motioned at Seville with its claw, “And Seville here is the one who shall be analyzing the psychological and cultural capacities of your species, ascertaining your general intellect level, the rate and power at which your culture will likely develop as a species, a general sense of human morality, and other such factors.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Seville added, “Your species has already passed the basic 'sapient species' level of intelligence, which is why we haven't simply claimed your planet as our own already.”

“Any questions?” Iradau asked.

Marina didn't say anything. She had... so many questions. However, most of them would remain forever unspoken, because she didn't want to admit that half of what Iradau said made all of zero sense. It took a moment for the perfect question to surface in Marina's mind, and she blurted it out the moment it had fully formed.

“Why me?”

“That's simple.” Seville said, giving her a smile that unsettled her. “It's because you saw us.”

“I had my optical receptors fixated on a different human, one that we had been observing before we had even entered your planet's atmosphere.” Iradau elaborated, “But protocol demands that we only link with one member of any particular species in order to perform our symbiotic studies.” The machine let out a clanking sound, and Marina's eyes snapped to the side in time to see its arm to roll back up into the compartment on its side. The compartment snapped shut, and Iradau continued. “I suggested we use you as a preliminary test subject, but Seville wanted your assistance instead.” Iradau turned to Seville, almost seeming to glare at him with the way the pattern of lights on its face changed.

“Man, don't tell her that.” Seville pressed his lips together, offering Marina an apologetic expression. “I wasn't going to let ol' Onesie here harm a hair on your pretty little head.”

“Iradau was gonna dig into my head?” Marina whispered, eyes widening.

“What kind of savage do you take me for?” Iradau asked, clearly offended. “It wouldn't have been 'digging'. I theoretically know exactly what neurons within the human brain to probe in order to achieve the ends that I needed to.”

“Theoretically?” Marina asked, leaning against the wall and feeling faint.

“Your brains are strangely similar to the Ulteese, a similarly simian species that we domesticated only two hundred years ago.”

“Yes, but they had some sort of vestigial third arm that their society revolved around.” Seville threw in, motioning dismissively. “Do you see a vestigial third arm on our host here? I don't think so.”

“Are... are you guys going to be staying here?” Marina asked, glancing around. She didn't really have the room to accommodate... whatever these guys were.

“Oh, absolutely.” Seville nodded, rubbing his chin as he looked around the room. Marina followed his gaze, a bit of pink coming to her cheeks. Her room was rather cluttered, not having a lot of floor space. Her bed was up against the far wall, right under the window looking out over the city. To the right of the door, a small, white floor shelf sat with her TV on top of it and her game consoles, and to the right of _that_ that was her desk, shoved up against the right wall with all of her dumb shit on it.

“I find it peculiar that humans still make use of cellular housing like this.” Iradau commented, moving towards the left wall and Marina's closet. “This is the first mammalian species we've encountered that makes use of insectoid housing structures.”

“Indeed.” Seville remarked, strolling over to her TV and examining her game consoles. “Interesting.”

Marina let them poke around her room, still fearing that they would 'probe her neurons' if she stopped them from looking around. Seville took the time to root around in her desk, finding a bunch of papers from school that she hadn't gotten around to throwing away. Iradau had moved onto her electronics, taking particular interest in her 3DS.

“P-Please don't mess up my game.” Marina told Iradau, who swiveled to stare at her. She felt a shiver run down her spine at the machine's cold stare, but continued anyway. “I... I'm in the middle of a level.”

“...” Iradau, curiously enough, didn't have anything to say, and simply continued to prod at the device. Marina had a bit of a crisis, wondering whether or not she saved recently, but decided that it was probably not that long ago and that Iradau wouldn't mess up her progress _too_ bad.

“Ah, Marina.” A hand laid itself on Marina's shoulder, and she jumped at the feeling, body going ramrod straight in surprise. Seville laughed, removing his hand. “My apologies. I was just going to ask you for a favor.”

“Oh.” Marina let out a sigh of partial relief, her heart still pounding in her chest. “What um... what is it?”

“I was wondering if you would let me observe your daily routine.” Seville smiled, that same unnerving smile. “You're a normal human being, yeah? I figured that since our partnership has just begun, it would be most beneficial for all of us to start with something small, like the daily going ons of a regular human, and then later on move onto something larger and involving more human beings.”

“Um... I mean...” Marina rubbed the back of her neck. “Sure? I mean, I guess uh... I'm... most... I mean... I d-don't really... have a routine anymore?”

“Anymore?” Seville asked, genuinely confused.

“Well um... school just ended last week so... I don't really have anything to do.” She explained, weakly gesturing at nothing.

“Ah, education.” Seville nodded. “A good portion of successful societies have breaks from their schooling, so this is a point in your favor.” Marina's face scrunched up. She didn't know how to respond to that. Seville continued talking anyway, not seeming to notice her expression. “Still, I'm slightly confused what you mean by you don't have anything to do. Nothing?”

“Um... n-not really.” Marina shrugged. “Even when I had school to concentrate on, I didn't... I didn't really... _do_ anything else.” She pointed at her game consoles, including the 3DS that Iradau seemed to be enamored with. “I would just... play games, usually.”

“Hmm...” Seville thought about that, pursing his lips and rubbing at his chin. “Well then, how about I just shadow you for the day? You can do whatever you want, and I won't bother you. It'll be just like a day on your own, except me and Iradau will be there.”

“Iradau and _I._ ” Iradau corrected, prompting Seville to roll his eyes.

“Yeah, whatever.” He turned back to Marina. “So, what do you say? Lemme follow you around for today, and then we can get onto bigger stuff.”

“I...” Marina thought about it. If she said yes, then she'd have these guys just... following her around. How would she hide them from her dad? But if she said no... what would they do? Iradau said it wanted to probe her brain. She didn't want to get probed. Just because it might not be like in the movies didn't mean she would like it, especially if they had to cut open her head to do it. “...sure.”

“Excellent!” Seville snapped his fingers, reaching into the pocket of his cargo shorts and pulling out what looked like a tablet. “Let me just open a new file, 'Phase One: Individual Study'.”

“Can I uh...” Marina bit her lip, tugging anxiously at a lock of her hair. Seville glanced up at her, eyebrow cocked. “I need to um... change my... my uh... my clothes.” She motioned at her shirt and sweatpants. Seville glanced down at her choice of clothing.

“Okay, go ahead.” He nodded at her and returned to his tablet.

“No, I... I mean...” She didn't know how to say it without being embarrassed. Seville looked up at her again. “I... I don't want you to... y'know... s-see me.” Seville blinked, looking down at her clothes again before looking back up at her face.

“...ah.” Something seemed to click in his head. “You're one of _those_ species.”

“Wh... what?” Marina felt herself asking for what have been the millionth time that day.

“Nothing, nothing.” Seville flapped a hand dismissively at her, starting to move towards the door. “I just wasn't aware that humans were one of the more... 'bashful' species. I'll make note of it.” He tapped something out on his tablet and left the room, closing the door behind him. Marina sighed and started to pull her shirt off when she realized that Iradau was still there, fiddling with her 3DS.

“Um-” She started.

“No.” Iradau replied. “I care not for your human form. I am unaware and uncaring of your human beauty standards, as cataloging that data is Seville's responsibility. I only care for what lies underneath your epidermis for anatomical purposes, so unless you are willing to shed your skin as well, I shall remain here.”

“O-Okay.” Marina wasn't sure what else to say, and stood there in the middle of the room. “C-Can you at least move so I can, um... get to my closet?” At her words, Iradau glanced to the door it was blocking. After a moment's consideration, Iradau shuffled to the side, granting Marina just enough space to open up her closet door.

Marina made do with the space given to her, and pulled out a simple purple shirt and a pair of shorts. They would do for the day. Once she was dressed, Marina opened her bedroom door to find Seville sitting at her kitchen table. 'Sitting' was generous, however, as Seville seemed to be floating about a foot above the chair he had evidently pulled out. He glanced up as her and smiled, always with the smile, and floated over to her.

“Excellent look.” He commented, glancing down at his tablet after offering his compliment. “What's next on your 'to do' list for the day?”

“I...” Marina looked down at the floor. She didn't have anything planned. “I was gonna... brush my teeth, I... I guess.”

“Ah, hygiene rituals! Please, allow me to observe.” Seville excitedly tapped something out on his tablet, then looked up at her in excitement.

“Y-You wanna... watch me? That's uh...”

“Hey now.” Seville said, tapping at his tablet. “Would you rather have your brain probed?” Marina let out a choked off gasp and scurried towards the bathroom. Seville jogged after her. “I was only teasing!”

* * *

 

The three of them had gathered at the table after Marina had done her best to think up a morning routine so that she didn't look like a slob to two random aliens. Were they even aliens? She assumed so, considering that they apparently came from space, but she didn't want to make any big assumptions. Either way, Seville had watched her brush her teeth, make her bed, gather up her dirty clothes (that was embarrassing!), and microwave her breakfast.

If Marina was being honest with herself, she wasn't sure where to go from here. She had basically done everything she was going to do this week all within a few hours, and now it was 11:30 and she had nothing to do besides eat her nuked breakfast. And she couldn't even do that, as Seville was watching her intently, and Iradau had taken one of her sausages so that it could run some 'compositional and nutritional tests' on it. Which were currently taking place at the table and were making her a little sick.

“Can um...” Marina finally mustered up the courage to speak up, drawing her eyes away from the sausage autopsy taking place. “Can I ask you guys some, um... some questions?”

“No.” Iradau replied, continuing to focus on splitting the sausage into individual components. Marina wasn't sure if she would be able to eat sausage again after this. “In case you were not aware, I am rather busy at the moment.”

“A healthy curiosity, excellent. Go ahead.” Seville said, giving her the go ahead with another smile and a nod.

“Um...” Marina poked at her bagel. “S-So you guys are... aliens, right? Like... from space?”

“Correct.” Iradau answered, despite stating that it was busy. “Our point of origin lies outside of your galaxy, and lie far, far beyond anywhere your primitive technology can reach or even see.”

“Basically.” Seville affirmed. “We come from a _long_ ways away. However, don't let that make you uncomfortable around us,” He continued, gesturing dismissively with his free hand before returning to tap something out on his tablet. “In terms of our cooperation, our technological differences mean little. In fact, they might actually work in your favor, considering that we are, in fact, on your species' terms for the time that we're here.”

“Th-That's um... that's the next question I had... actually...” Marina pushed her once again cold breakfast away. “How um... how long are you guys going to be here? Because I... I only have three months and...” She looked away, “I kinda wanted to... relax before... y'know... college...”

“Don't worry.” Seville told her. “This process should take, at maximum, about three of this planet's months.

“...of course.” Marina sighed, planting an elbow on the table and placing her cheek in her palm. Of course she wouldn't get her last summer at home to herself.

“Oh, don't fret.” Seville reached out to pat her shoulder, Marina's back straightening when he made contact. “Look on the bright side. You'll get to spend more time with us if we domesticate your species. And I honestly doubt that humans are fit for physical labor work anyway.” He laughed, and Iradau let out what sounded like a humored buzz. Marina sat silently, still with fear. Would they really 'domesticate' them? She didn't like that word.

“I... I don't wanna be 'domesticated'.” Marina whimpered.

“Then prove your worth.” Iradau replied, finally seeming to finish up its mutilation of the sausage. It picked the plate up that Marina had provided it and scraped the sausage carcass from it, moving the sausage from its own plate to Marina's.

“That's a crass way of putting it.” Seville said, finally stuffing the tablet into his pocket again. “But yes, all that you need to do is show us the potential and nature of humans are worth leaving alone. Simple.”

“Th-That... that doesn't... sound simple.” Marina said, wringing her hands. She could already see herself in chains, with some sort of... space shackle around her neck. Or maybe they'd just tie her up with a rope. Or tie up _everybody_ with a rope.

“Ah, but that's simply not true,” Seville remarked, “Despite our rough start, you've already given the human race a pretty interesting first impression.”

“I... I have?” Marina asked.

“Oh, very much so.” Seville nodded. “Your natural curiosity and cooperativeness are definite pluses of a well-developed species. Your self-grooming routines are a good sign as well.” Marina decided to not speak up about the fact that she hadn't planned on brushing her teeth this morning. “Plus, we already had a pretty good opinion of you guys before we even entered your atmosphere. You've got some respectable tech for being such a young species, and you already populate a decent surface area of your planet. So don't worry too much.”

“...If you guys say so.” Marina looked away. That did sound like some beneficial stuff, but she couldn't get her head away from the whole 'domestication' thing.

Marina stood up, grabbing her plate and moving over to the trash to dump the leftovers. She wasn't hungry anymore. Before Seville or Iradau could start talking again, Marina quickly made her way over to the sink, to both have a moment to herself and show Seville that she wasn't a gross human that just left her icky dirty dishes in the sink.

She thought about what lay ahead for her this summer as the warm water washed over her hands. Even though it had been told to her multiple times, Marina just couldn't imagine herself as the representative for the entire human race. She wasn't even fit to represent her AV club at her old high school for anything, much less every human in existence. She was starting to feel lightheaded again. However, Marina was distracted from her thoughts by the feeling of Seville's eyes drilling into the back of her head, and she turned around to find Seville once again staring at her intently.

“No, no, ignore me.” Seville said, glancing back down at his tablet. “I'm just making a note of this.”

“Um... o-okay...” Marina turned back to the sink, Seville's gaze still drilling into her back. She started to rush a bit, scrubbing quicker than she normally would. Seville was kind of freaking her out. Marina put both plates into the drying rack and shuddered as she wiped her hands. She didn't like being stared at.

Now that she was done washing the dishes... Marina just stood in the middle of the kitchen. She didn't know what to do now. She didn't want to just go back into her room and lay on her bed, even though she really did. Doing that would probably... not show off the prowess of the human race very well. Marina let out a sigh. This was already really hard. She had no idea how to appease some aliens that wanted to 'domesticate' her or play with her brain. Hell, she never had any idea what she was doing _period_.

“I'm...” Marina began, making Seville look up at her and Iradau glance over from its spot at the table. “I'm um... g-gonna go take a nap, m-maybe.”

“What for?” Seville asked, looking curious.

“I... s-stress makes me um... tired. Y'know.” She replied, offering a weak shrug as some sort of appeasement.

“I see this as an excellent opportunity.” Iradau said suddenly, plodding over to the two of them. “I did not think I would have an opportunity to study humankind's dormant brainwaves this soon.”

“W-Wait... what?” Marina asked, looking to Seville for an explanation.

“He wants to study how your brain works while you're sleeping.” Seville told her, moving a hand up to scratch at his chin. “Actually... this might be a good opportunity to make some observations of my own. Yes, I think a 'nap' would be an excellent idea, Marina, good suggestion!”

“Hold on n-now.” Marina said, holding her hands up a little. “You... are you... you're gonna watch me while I sleep?”

“No,” Iradau said, “I will be linking up to your brain through special nodules applied to the epidermis that will allow me to examine the electrical pulses that your mind emits during its dormant state, which will provide details as to aspects of your brain and how your body makes use of your nervous system while it is not actively operating them.”

“Link up with me?” Marina felt herself pale a little bit. “Y-You're not gonna... you're not gonna p-probe my brain or anything... r-right?”

“It won't really be 'probing', per se.” Seville shrugged. “It's more like... a surface scan of your brainwaves, nothing overly complicated.”

“Um... okay.” Marina said, unsure.

* * *

 

“Um... I don't... like this...” Marina said. She was lying on her bed, staring straight up at her ceiling while Seville and Iradau stared at something on Seville's tablet, the former typing something out and the latter letting out an irritated 'too much' or 'no' every once in a while. They had told her to get comfortable while they prepped the tools they needed and, while it sounded incredibly ominous and made Marina never want to sleep again, she complied by getting back into her pajamas.

They had then laid her down on her bed and stuck a bunch of gadgets onto her skin at various places on her head, and even put one on the back of her neck (“So we can get at your spine!” Seville had told her). The little pieces of tech looked kind of like computer chips, with a black body and little gray tubes that ran off the edge and into her skin, as well as a tiny green light that flashed slowly with each beat of her heart. That was weird. They had pricked her when Seville put them on, but she tried not to think about it too much, because if she did, then they kind of felt like little bugs that had attached themselves to her, and she didn't like that line of thought. Oh god, why did she think of it?

“Aw, it's not that bad.” Seville said, smiling and patting her cheek. Marina pressed her lips together. That seemed a bit patronizing.

“You will recover.” Iradau commented. “The Link Nodules cause no lasting damage on all species it has been tested on, including those with thinner epidermis than your species. Therefore, you suffer from simple psychological distress, which should be assuaged by the reassurement that I have just provided you.”

“...sure don't feel reassured...” Marina mumbled under her breath, glancing out her window.

“What?” Seville asked.

“N-Nothing! I-It was nothing!”

“Whatever you say.” Seville tapped one more thing out on the tablet, then lowered it. “I'm not adjusting the numbers anymore, Onesie. They're fine.”

“You must be joking.” Iradau grunted. “Just adjust it by .0374 more. That's it.”

“Ugh, fine.” Seville lifted the tablet back up and, very lightly, tapped the screen four times. “There. I did it.”

“...That was only .0352.” Iradau informed him. Seville threw his hands up, but Iradau continued talking. “But for the purposes of actually performing the experiment, I _suppose_ it is possible for me to operate under a .0022 degree deviation. I hope you're happy.”

“Very.” Seville rolled his eyes, strolling over to Marina, who was trying very hard not to scratch at the Link Nodules on her cheek. “Do you need a little help falling asleep?”

“...Yeah, I do.” She nodded.

“Excellent.” Seville smiled, turning around. “Hey, Iradau, bring over the anesthetic, would you?”

“Another opportunity to test the reactions of human beings to non-Rhestrus native materials.” Iradau tromped over, turning to the side slightly. One of its panels popped open, and a revealed a black cube that was attached to another one of Iradau's arms. The arm extended, bringing the cube to Seville.

Marina watched as Seville tapped the front of the cube, prompting the front face to slide open, revealing some a bunch of devices hanging from a rack. They looked like glue guns, if glue guns had all sorts of weird lights, tubing, and a screen grafted onto them. Seville checked a few things, looking over the device before reaching for the cube again. He tapped the top, prompting the cube to slide closed again. Using a single finger, Seville drew a circle on top of the cube, and it let out a whirring sound. Once the sound stopped, Seville tapped the front of the cube again.

This time, it opened up to reveal another rack, this one host to a multitude of vials. They were all made out of what looked like frosted glass, and had labels on them. The writing on the labels didn't make any sense to Marina, though she was slightly unnerved by the vial that seemed to be full of glowing purple liquid. She didn't like that. Seville nicked one of the vials, one with what looked like clear liquid. He checked out the top, then slipped the vial into the back of the device, just like a glue gun. Marina's eyes widened at the sight of a needle extending from the nozzle of the gun when Seville tapped the trigger. She spoke up as he flicked the side of the device.

“U-Um... a-are you sure this is... are you sure this is... y'know, like, safe?” Her eyes zeroed in on the needle. It glinted menacingly in the light, and she swallowed thickly. “I-Iradau mentioned 'non-Rhestrus' a-and I don't know what... what a 'Rhestrus' is...”

“Rhestrus is simply the name that we have chosen for your planet. It's much less clumsy than 'Earth' and I have decided that we shall be using it to address your planet from now on.” Iradau told her, seemingly just staring forward, though Marina guessed it was doing some... computer stuff. Or something.

“And this is perfectly safe.” Seville assured her, reaching down and gently grabbing her wrist with the hand that held the device. Marina tensed up at his touch. He pulled her arm up slightly, and placed the index finger of his other hand just below his hand. “Now let's see... if I remember correctly...” His index finger began slowly tracing down her arm. “There should be a place of significant blood flow right...” He stopped right at the crook of her elbow. “Here.”

Before she could even say anything, Marina found the needle primed at the crook of her elbow. She glanced up at him, and he offered her a smile before sticking the needle into her arm and pulling the trigger. Marina blacked out.

* * *

 

Marina woke up to the sound of clicking. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, blinking a few times to clear her eyes of the blurriness that had accumulated in them. A quick glance to the side showed her the orange and red sunset painting the city skyline through the window, with purple starting to creep into the other colors. She stared out of the window for a little while, pulling herself into a sitting position and letting the entire situation settle in her mind. She must have been taking a nap. But she didn't normally sleep for very long, and it sure _felt_ like she'd been sleeping a while. The clicking continued, and Marina turned towards it.

Seville and Iradau sat in the middle of the room. Seville was on top of Iradau, tapping at some sort of laptop that had two extra screens protruding from the sides of the original screen, his eyes rapidly flicking from one screen to another. Iradau itself seemed to be off, with its legs retracted and the lights of its eyes more or less off. A singular light was on, and it rotated clockwise around the pattern of lights as if Iradau was processing something. Seville seemed focused on whatever he was doing until he heard the rustling of the bedsheets as Marina swung her legs out over the edge.

“Ah, Marina! Welcome back! I'm glad to see that you're okay!” Seville grinned at her, pressing something on his laptop. The two extra screens almost instantly disappeared with a ' _fwip'_ and Marina blinked as he shut it and floated off of Iradau.

“...I wouldn't have been?” She asked, rubbing her eyes with her fists.

“No, there was an almost certain chance that you would have been fine. I just wasn't aware of how receptive your cardiovascular system was to anesthetics and other foreign chemicals. You humans must have a very robust immune system to combat it!”

“...” Marina didn't have anything to say to that, so she simply just rubbed at her eyes. “What time is it?” She asked instead.

“No idea.” Seville shrugged. “I haven't synched any of our tech to your time units yet, so it's anybody's guess.”

Marina looked to the side, her eyes finding her alarm clock. Its red numbers glared at her, displaying '7:43'. She frowned and rubbed at her eyes again. That seemed... weird. But she couldn't place why. At least, not until the sound of the front door unlocking hit her ears and her father called out 'Marina?' from the entryway. Her eyes widened in surprise.

“G-Gimme a minute, Dad!” Marina called out. Seville looked at her strangely as she scrambled around her room.

“What-” Seville began to ask, but Marina shushed him. He cocked an eyebrow and lowered his voice to a whisper. “What are you doing?”

“Y-You guys have to hide!” Marina whispered back. “M-My dad would... he w-would freak out if he found out a-about you!”

“Ah, your parental figure.” Seville nodded, rubbing at his chin in thought. “Yes, him finding us would be problematic, considering that we're supposed to limit out interaction to one member of an observed species. Very well, we'll simply stay in here.”

“I...” Marina wasn't really sure about that. She didn't like leaving anybody that wasn't her dad, her sister, or her best friend in her room alone, especially not two random aliens she had just met that morning. But it was better than her dad freaking out, she guessed. “F-Fine. Just... please don't touch my stuff.”

Once Seville gave her a thumbs up and an excited 'that's definitely a human expression of affirmation', Marina scurried out of her room, making sure to shut the door behind her. Her father was standing next to the kitchen table, reading something on his phone with his briefcase on the table. When she approached him, he looked up at her and smiled.

“There's my girl.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him. “How was your day?” He glanced down, raising his brow at her expression. “You look a pretty tired. Have you been sleeping all day?”

“U-Um... no?” Marina replied, glancing away. Her father grunted, prompting Marina to let out a quiet sigh. “...okay. M... maybe I have. Just a little bit.”

“It's fine, sugar plum. Just don't make a habit of sleeping all day, okay?” Her father released her from his grasp, sighing and scratching at his head. He glanced down at his phone again, and Marina quietly waited for him to check whatever he needed to.

“Uh... i-is everything okay with... um... with work? A-And stuff?” Marina asked, timidly playing with the fringe of her shirt. “Because I... I know you said that... that you'd have something... nice for d-dinner with me a-and stuff... but if you're busy...”

“Oh Marina...” Her father sighed again, placing his phone face down on the table and smiling. Her grabbed Marina's shoulders and shook his head. “Don't you worry about me, baby girl. Things are just a little more hectic than normal because of that outage this morning.” Marina took a deep breath, reaching forward and wrapping her arms around his chest.

“I'm sorry.” She murmured.

“Shh...” Her father ran a hand through her hair, patting her back and pulling away a little bit. “Remember what I said.”

“Don't... don't you worry about me, baby girl.” Marina repeated.

“That's right.” He straightened his back and smiled at her, gently squeezing her shoulder. “Now then, get those hands washed up and we can make ourselves something nice for dinner, alright?”

“Right.” Marina nodded, a smile on her face, and headed off to the bathroom to wash her hands.

* * *

 

“...” Marina remained silent as she washed the post-dinner dishes, having offered to do them so that her father could get some sleep. The sound of running water splashing against dishes was the only thing that filled the kitchen, and Marina decided to fill a bit of the silence by humming a tune she heard on the radio the other day. It was the most peaceful she had felt the whole day, and she let her shoulders slump, relaxation settling into her joints. Perhaps she would be fine like this for the rest of her life, warm water and soap bubbles spilling onto her hands and running down her forearms. The gentle sound of silence and her humming. A creaking caught her ears, and Marina stopped humming and listened to the sound of a door opening.

“Dad?” She asked, “I thought you were getting some sleep?”

“We are not your parental figure.” Iradau's voice made Marina jump a little in surprise, and she turned to look over her shoulder, finding the robot marching out of her room with Seville on top of it.

“Wh-What are you guys doing out here?!” Her voice dropped to a sharp whisper, and she nervously glanced over to the door to her father's bedroom. “Go... go back in there! What if he comes out and sees you?”

“He won't.” Seville replied, shrugging lazily.

“I have calculated the probability of him waking up based off of observed evidence and, assuming he has already entered a dormant state for the duration of a Rhestrus night cycle, have seen that the benefits of speaking to you in a more open space outweigh the potential risks of encountering this 'father' of your's.” Iradau told her, tromping over to the table. Seville slid off of it once they got there, and floated over the table, 'laying' on his back.

“This is important, so I would suggest that you finish up quick.” Seville said, smiling at her. Marina frowned and turned back to the dishes, speeding up her washing process, the calmness of her situation now dead due to the two aliens that were once again at her kitchen table. She sighed as she finished up, drying her hands with the hand towel near the sink and trudging over to the table.

“Okay.” She said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. “What... what is it? What's important?”

“We need to talk about our plan going out from here.” Seville said, once again tapping on his tablet. Marina looked up at him in confusion.

“Wh-What? Our plan?”

“Correct.” Iradau said, continuing the train of thought. “We have determined that the optimal time period for information retrieval from Rhestrus would be three planet side months. I am aware that we have brought this up with you earlier, but I am not confident as to the mental capacity of human beings and I wanted to make sure that you were aware of this.”

“...I'm... I'm not dumb.” Marina murmured under her breath, planting her elbow on the table and propping her head up.

“I'm sure.” Iradau replied, sounding incredibly sarcastic. “However, whether or not you possess the ability to remember or not is irrelevant. We must develop a plan for this data retrieval if we want to finish in the allotted three months. I am sure that you don't want us to remain with you past that time period, as I have cataloged your mention of 'college', which we have deduced is a form of higher education that places you away from the cellular housing that you call 'home'. We have safely assumed that you would not appreciate our presence there and thus, we have found it in your best interests to cooperate with us so that we may complete our required tasks.”

“It'll be easier for everybody, at least in the long run.” Seville tacked on, shrugging apologetically.

“...okay.” Marina sighed, putting her other elbow on the table and nestling her head in both hands. “What ideas did you have?”

“It's less of an idea and more of a plan we already have that we wanted to run by you.” Seville responded, descending so that he was just above the table. “But here's the basic outline: For the first week, Iradau and I will be acclimating ourselves to Rhestrus. This includes things like investigating the habits of the humans in neighboring cell units, measuring meteorological data, getting informed on the basic and necessary Rhestrus technology, and getting precise readings on the surprisingly strong magnetic poles that your planet possesses.”

“From there,” Iradau continued, “We will proceed to delve more in depth into the aspects of human psychology in regards to other humans, domesticated animals, and the local flora.”

“We'll also be studying human technology, architecture, and mathematics more in depth.” Seville tacked on.

“While Seville shall be studying the former, and I the latter, you shall be helping us with both processes along the way.” Iradau told Marina. “That will take approximately a month and a half. Upon the end of that period of our time together, Seville and I will take a day off from our studies in order to report on our progress on this project. Depending on the situation and the attitude of our superiors, you may or may not be required to sit in on the call and provide supplementary commentary and information.”

“And once the big wigs are finished yapping at us, we'll move on to stage two of the mission.” Seville said. “Iradau will leave us for a period of time in order to fully explore the availability and quality of Rhestrus resources. While he's gone, you'll be assisting me in the cultural study of human beings. And trust me when I say this will take a lot longer than we think it will, it almost always does.”

“Both operations,” Iradau finished, “should take us to the end of our time together, upon which we shall leave Rhestrus, likely for good. Any questions?”

“...n-no?” Marina blinked. That... that was a lot to take in.

“Excellent,” Seville smiled. “Do you have any recommendations for the plan? Anything you think we should observe or study earlier or later in our mission? The system is very flexible, this is just the one we've 'calculated' works out best.”

“I... Um...” Marina looked from Iradau to Seville and back again. “I-I mean, no, b-but-”

“Then we shall start tomorrow, once this 'father' of your's leaves to attend to his daily duties.” Iradau cut her off. “Begin resting, you will need the energy, for we have a busy day cycle ahead of us tomorrow.” And with that, the robot was off, heading back to her room.

“I...” Marina didn't know what to say.

“He's right.” Seville shrugged. “Best to get some sleep now.” And then he was gone too, back into her room. Marina sighed and buried her head in her hands, wondering just what the hell she had managed to get herself into.

 


End file.
